GaGA!Growing and Getting Awesome… the Official Loving the Pregnant You Blog

Have you seen it? F-Bombs for Feminism. What do you think?

Little girls dressed as princesses are dropping f-bombs (yeah, the real f-bombs) to support a good cause: feminism, gender equality. They make some powerful points and, of course, delivered by little girls, it gets our attention.

If you want to see the video, watch here.

What do you think? Going too far to make the point? Or finally getting pointed enough?

I don’t know that I’d be gutsy enough to launch a feminism campaign like this. And, I’m glad they’re are getting people to think.

I consider our work aligned.Loving the Pregnant You is about supporting expectant and new moms to feel confident and empowered. When we’re confident and empowered parents then we teach our children – boys and girls – to be confident and empowered. To be assertive. To advocate for themselves. To feel confident and powerful and to NOT feel like they need to overpower another person in order to feel powerful.

And, FCKH8.com‘s video has gotten me thinking…
What are each of us doing as parents of girls – and boys – to support gender equality?
How do we – on a daily basis – encourage our kids to consider the genders equally valuable?

Here are some ideas. Then I’d love to hear yours.

Watch our language. They are “police officers,” not “policemen.” It seems small, yet it sends a big message.

Teach our kids to ask for what they need. At a restaurant the other day we didn’t get the apple juice that my daughter ordered. I had her take the lead in explaining to the cashier what we were missing. (Then we went back to the table and realized they didn’t charge us for the apple juice, so then she came with me to pay for it! Another lesson!) I encourage her to clearly ask her friends for what she’d like.

Teach our kids to be gentle. People say that my son is “such a boy.” It’s another potential need to watch our language. Just because he’s a boy and plays football doesn’t mean he can be rough with people. We have ongoing conversations about the need to be gentle with everyone. To watch our strength and make sure we don’t inadvertently hurt anyone.

Show our kids that anyone can do anything. Let them know that it’s equally ok for boys and girls to play with kitchen sets and tool benches. They are not “girl toys” and “boy toys,” they are simply “toys.”

And, of course, the messaging gets more mature and sophisticated as our kids get older.

What ideas do you have to instill gender equality in our kids as they grow?